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REPORT AND RULE.^ 

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RELATIVE TO THE 

GOVERNMENT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 



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REPOET AND RULES 


RELATIVE TO THE 


GOVERNMENT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 


I.— REPORT OF THE CIVIL-SERVICE COMMISSION, 
PRESENTED JUNE 4, 1873. 

II.— EXECUTIVE ORDER OF AUGUST 5, 1873. 

III.— RULES PROMULGATED UNDER THE EXECUTIVE 
ORDER OF AUGUST 5, 1873. 


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I.-REPORT OF THE CIVIL-SERVICE COMMISSION. 


Washington, D. C., June 4,1873. 

To THE President : 

The circumstances under which the members of the Civil- 
Service Commission were called upon to hold their session, now 
just brought to a close, attracted their early inquiry into the 
practical administration of the rules and regulations thus far, 
as well as into the immediate prospects and probable utility of 
civil-service reform as now inaugurated. 

Were it not for the facts that some of the members have re¬ 
cently come to their places, and that it is the purpose of the 
commission to hold an early session at which it is intended to 
bring the existing rules and regulations, perhaps somewhat 
modified in details, into a regular series, we should consider it 
useful to present, more fully than we now propose to do, the 
results of our inquiries and reflections upon those subjects. 

We now submit a brief report, and therewith several new 
rules suitable, in our opinion, to be prescribed by the President 
at this time. 

But before presenting some of the reasons which justify these 
new rules, we wish plainly to declare our conviction that those 
having the duty of enforcing the civil-service rules and regu¬ 
lations have brought to the discharge of that duty perfect 
fidelity to the essential principles of civil-service reform, as 
well as that degree of vigor which onlj^ needs the support of 
an appreciative public opinion to secure the complete enforce¬ 
ment and vindication of that reform. A change so considera¬ 
ble as it proposes in some of our political methods can hardly 
succeed if not very gradually introduced. Even if at once 
correctly appreciated by public opinion, the difficulties of its 
early stages would not be small; but they are greatly increased 
when so many misconceive both the aims and the practical 
operations of the reform itself. 

The new rules we submit more clearly define some of these 
aims, and we are able, as the result of our investigation, to 



4 


speak, upon the warrant of the highest authority, as to some 
of the results of the practical operation of the rules in the great 
Departments at Washington, where the clearest tests have been 
obtained. It appears to be the unanimous opinion of those at 
the heads of these Departments that there has been a decided 
mitigation under the operation of such rules of the serious evils 
that before prevailed and steadily" increased. Mere personal 
importunity and partisan intrigue have diminished in the same 
ratio that individual merit and just rules fortesting such merit 
have been made the basis of appointments and iiromotious. 
The application of these tests has been gradually extended as 
experience has seemed to warrant, and in every case with good 
results. 

In the Department of State, for example, a rigorous system 
for the examination of applicants for the position of consuls 
has been put in operation under the Executive order of March 
14,1873, and there is every reason to believe that incompetent 
persons will, in a great measure, cease to urge themselves upon 
that branch of the public service, and that those who pass the 
examinations will be competent to serve their country in a 
satisfactory manner. 

In the Patent-Office, the results of examination and com¬ 
petition have been more skilled ability in places where it 
was much needed and more capacity in the same number of 
officials for a prompt and satisfactor}’ discharge of their 
duties. Similar illustrations might be drawn from the other 
Departments, if it was our intention to present a full report 
at this time. And one consequence of a fair and full exam¬ 
ination into the qualifications of applicants, by boards com¬ 
petent for such duty, has been that the heads of Depart¬ 
ments have had more time to attend to the public business, 
and have only been called upon to make a final selection 
from among a small number, each one of whom had been 
shown to be among the better qualified of the many that 
pressed for appointments. 

On the other hand, defects have been discovered in the new 
methods, and some inconvenience, resulting, however, only in 
pecuniary gain to the Government, has been experienced in 
filling certain places in the service in strict conformity to 
the rules. But none of these impediments in the way of 
success are of a nature which appear difficult to remove, and 



we believe the inodificatioiis we uow propose will remove most 
of them. 

The most serious obstacles we find to overcome in the dis¬ 
charge of the duties to which the President has called us, 
appear to originate in a misconception, on the part of many 
honest people, of the theory and object of civil-service reform, 
and in the prejudice and interested opi)osition it may be made 
to encounter through the selfish exertions of those who arraign 
the motives of the Executive, and attack the reform itself, in 
the interest of mere personal ambition or party aggrandize¬ 
ment. 

We are far from intending to suggest that opposition is con¬ 
fined to those governed by interested or unpatriotic motives; 
for we by no means believe such to be the fact. 

But while no man’s opinion upon the merits of the attempt 
to improve our civil service should be regarded as any just test 
of his honesty or of his regard for the public welfare, it is yet 
plain that political opposition and personal interests may at¬ 
tempt to promote their common ends by the easy method of 
attacking the sincerity and predicting the failure of the attempt 
itself. We are convinced that the success of civil-service re¬ 
form is to be decided by the intelligent fidelity with which its 
friends shall present its true methods to the popular judgment. 
When presented within their true sphere, as a method and an 
agency through which the appointing power, without invading 
the proper functions and influence of i)arties under republican 
institutions, shall be most effectually aided in selecting for 
official places and in promoting those whose characters, abilities, 
and attainments best qualify them to serve the people, we are 
convinced that fair public examinations to test such qualifica¬ 
tions will receive the permanent support of the people, as 
against any method of mere personal solicitation or partisan 
influence for securing office. From all such tests, of course, 
there should be excepted, as the rules now provide, the Presi¬ 
dent, the heads of Departments, and all those high officers 
who really represent that policy of a party and those principles 
of a cami^aign which the people have approved 5 but by no 
means should there be excepted those officers and clerks whose 
tasks should be performed in the same non-partisan, clerical, 
and faithful manner, whatever principles may guide and what¬ 
ever party-leaders may control the Administration. 

It has been our aim to recognize the right which requires 


6 


tliat a victorious party should be able to name the officers so 
far down the official scale as their i)rinciples may justly be in¬ 
volved in fair and honest administration, at the same time that 
we have resisted that pernicious theory which insists that every 
clerk in a public office, no matter how subordinate or how use¬ 
ful, shall mingle as a partisan in every contest and go out as a 
matter of course with a retiring head of Department. But 
the new rules we submit will show that we do not regard the 
question of the proper duration of the tenure of office or of 
clerkships, as one with which civil-service reform, as now inau¬ 
gurated, has any other than an indirect connection. 

1. The first rule appended aims at securing to the appoint¬ 
ing power some better evidence of the real qualifications of 
those, often wholly unworthy, who are importunately, and 
doubtless sometimes reluctantly, pressed for appointments or 
nominations. It is due to the people that those having the 
duty of nominations should insist on the best evidence of fit¬ 
ness j and it will certainly imomote the public interests, if 
those reluctantly compelled to urge candidates upon the 
appointing power shall find some relief in a method which, 
at the same time, asserts the true theory of the Constitution. 

2. The second rule, in substance declares that the rules and 
regulations for im])roving the civil service are intended neither 
to restrict the right of removal nor to extend the tenure of 
office, but leave the executive responsibility, the rights of 
Congress, and the interests of the people, in that regard, with¬ 
out qualification. If the fact of more competent persons being 
found in office shall create a desire to retain them longer, it 
may be presumed no public interest will be thereby injured. 

3. The third rule is intended both to mark out the path of 
duty before any abuse shall arise and to remove a false and 
mischievous impression known to exist in the public mind, 
by declaring that the members of the Civil-Service Commission, 
and of the boards of examiners, have nothing to do with i^ro- 
curing nominations, Avith aiding promotions, or with adjusting 
political disputes j but are substantially limited to the functions 
of framing proper rules and regulations and of supervising and 
conducting examinations directed to be held under them. And 
we desire to bear testimony to the ability and integrity with 
which the examiners have discharged their respeetive duties. 

4. The fourth rule relates to a class of females who seek em¬ 
ployment below the grade of the lowest class of regular clerks. 


7 


and from among wliom patriotism and public justice seem to 
require that selections shall be made, after examinations have 
shown the applicants to be qualified, not wholly in reference to 
attainments and capacity, as shown by competition between 
themselves, but largely in reference to their just claims upon 
public regard, which have arisen by reason of those on whom 
they were dependent having suftered or died in the public serv¬ 
ice of the nation. 

5. The fifth rule seems to call for no comment. 

6. The sixth rule provides a relief against the delays made 
unavoidable by reason of the examinations before provided for, 
being only for vacancies which had already occurred. This 
rule provides for examinations in anticipation of vacancies, and 
will furnish those qualified persons from whom such vacan¬ 
cies can at all times be readily filled. 

7. The seventh rule relates to the important subject of ex¬ 
aminations in ifiaces beyond Washington. While the theory 
that all the offices of the Government should be bestowed in 
geographical or arithmetical succession among the people of 
every portion of the Union would lead to very undesirable re¬ 
sults, if allowed to override the considerations of moral and in¬ 
tellectual fitness, it is yet true that the honor of serving the 
nation belongs equally to all of its people, irrespective of res¬ 
idence. The method of party and personal promotions to offices 
gave an undue proportion of them to imi)ortunate men who 
lingered about Washington and made politics a trade; and so 
long as all examinations for places in the great Departments 
and in the consular service shall be confined to Washington, it 
will not be easy to wholly remove this abuse of the old system. 

The new rule we propose on this subject will, we think, in a 
large measure furnish a remedy. Inadequacy of funds will, 
for the present, prevent examinations at so many places as the 
reasonable convenience of applicants requires, but relief from 
this inconvenience rests with Congress. As each of the five 
districts into which the Union is divided is to be taken as a 
sphere of competition for the purpose of making selections for 
new appointments, every head of a Department may have the 
variety of qualifications afforded by fifteen eligible persons 
from whom such appointment may be made with due regard 
to the strictest competition. Each of these five districts can, 
by our rule, have at least two competitive examinations within 
its own borders during each year. 




8 


Should Congress see fit to moderately increase its appropria¬ 
tion for the civil service, examinations could be made at more 
places in each district j and there can, we think, be little doubt 
that, in a short time, it would be the case here, as it now is in 
England, that such examinations would be sought by worthy 
young men, for the honor and business advantages of a public 
recognition of the merit they would demonstrate. In that way, 
a public sentiment would be developed which would sternly as¬ 
sociate every branch of the public service with a demand and 
recognition of that high personal worth from which it has been, 
in the public estimation, so unfortunately separated. It is true 
the Government should not conduct such examinations for 
mere private ends, but they can be easily limited to the public 
needs, if found too much resorted to. Each such examination 
is to be just as effective for every purpose as an examination 
now is, or hereafter will be, if conducted at Washington. 

In i)roviding for examinations outside of Washington, it 
should be observed that competitions are to be between those 
who are residents in the same district, without regard to where 
they may be actually examined, and that the examination may 
be allowed in any district to suit the convenience of persona 
desiring the examination. With the order of making appoint¬ 
ments from residents within the several districts who have, 
through the test of comi)etition, shown themselves to possess 
the highest merit, the civil-service rules in no way interfere, 
but leave the discretion of the appointing power in that regard 
unrestricted. 

The great difference in the density of population manifestly 
rendered it impossible to even approximate the districts in 
point of size. hTor was it possible, even with great inconven¬ 
ience of geographical arrangement, to bring the same poi^ula- 
tiou within each district. It was as undesirable as it is imprac¬ 
ticable to subdivide States. Disregarding the fractions of a 
thousand in the several States and Territories, the whole popu¬ 
lation may be stated, in round numbers, as shown by the last 
census, as 38,500,000 j and this would give 7,700,000 to each 
district. The first distriet has 7,870,0005 the second, 8,204,000; 
the third, 7,906,000; the fourth, 7,295,000 ; the fifth, 7,284,000. 

If the second district, being that in which Washington is 
vsituated, is ifiaced at some disadvantage by being given the 
largest population, it should be remembered that the great De¬ 
partments are in that district, and that they give employment 


9 


to numerous persons below the grade of those officers and 
regular clerks to which the civil-service rules apply. 

It was impossible under the existing appropriations to desig¬ 
nate any place of district examinations within California or 
Oregon, even if such designation at this time would not, for 
other reasons, be premature. It is a considerable compensa¬ 
tion that the residents in those States will hardly liave any 
contestants for places in the custom-houses and other Federal 
offices within their borders j and residents there can be ex¬ 
amined in any other district. By reason of the great size of 
the fifth district, and of the dense population of the first dis¬ 
trict, and of the fact that there was no one large central city in 
either of these districts, but were two cities in each where 
there might be local examining boards in existence, it was 
thought most convenient to have the examinations held alter¬ 
nately in New^ York and Boston for the first district, and alter¬ 
nately in Savannah and Memphis for the fifth district. Much 
the same reasons demanded two places of examination in the 
third district; and Cincinnati and Detroit seem to be the two 
most convenient places for that purpose. 

It appeared, however, to be more convenient to limit the 
examinations to Saint Louis for the fourth district until they 
can be extended to the Pacific States. 

Under the new rules we have proi)osed, it will be in the 
l^ower of the head of any custom-house, post-office, or of any 
other public office in either said'district, to send any applicant 
for admission to a place in the civil service under him to be 
examined at either of these district examinations. But we 
have not intended, at present at least, to supersede local exam¬ 
ining boards at such local offices, and they may perhaps be 
liermanently necessary for examinations for local promotions. 
It is, however, contemplated that one member of the district 
boards, and possibly two, will be selected from the local board 
of examiners. It is intended that it shall be the duty of the 
chief examiner to properly supervise and to bring into uniform¬ 
ity the proceedings of the local examining boards. 

The system of district examinations and competitions has 
been initiated in response to what the commissioners have rea¬ 
son to regard as a general public demand, and while feeling 
that its merits can only be determined by actual experiment, it 
is yet established with entire confidence in its justice and gen¬ 
eral adaptation to the public convenience. 


10 


The commission wish to record the opinion that the exam¬ 
iners generally might, with public advantage, give somewhat 
more weight to the evidence of practical capacity for business; 
and at a future session, if they find it necessary, they propose 
to prepare a rule, adapted to the estimate of such capacity ia 
a just and uniform manner, without at the same time opening 
the door to mere political infiuence or personal favoritism. 

We ought to bear testimony to the attention and co-opera¬ 
tion with which the Executive and the members of the cabinet 
have aided our labors; and the more we have been brought 
into familiarity with the practical bearings of the great princi¬ 
ples of individual justice and national safety which must be 
the basis and sanction of all true methods of improving the 
the civil service, and the ampler our opportunities have been 
of measuring the allegiance which such principles command 
from those whom the people have placed at the head of their 
great affairs, the more profound is our impression of the inesti¬ 
mable value of the reform itself, and of the solemn obligation 
of all its friends to leave no means untried, during this best 
opportunity our generation has seen or may see, to place that 
reform upon a sure foundation and to transmit it in healthy 
vigor as the greatest political blessing this generation can con¬ 
fer upon the generations to come. 

DOEMAN B. EATOX. 

SAMUEL SHELLABAEGEE. 

DAWSON A. WALKEE. 

E. B. ELLIOTT. 

JOSEPH H. BLAOKFAN. 

DAVID 0. COX. 

Washington, D. C., June 4,1873. 

Note.— The signature of Alexander G. Cattell, one of the 
members of the Civil-Service Commission, does not appear, in 
consequence of his absence in Europe. 


II.-EXECUTIVE ORDER. 


Washington, August 5, 1873. 

The Civil-Service Commission, at its session at Washington, 
which terminated June 4,1873, recommended certain further 
rules to be prescribed by the President for the government of 
the civil service of the United States. 

These rules, as herewith published, are approved, and their 
provisions will be enforced as rapidly as the proper arrange¬ 
ments can be made. 

U. S. GEA^^T. 

By the President: 

Hamilton Pish, 

Secretary of State. 



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Ill-FURTHER RULES FOR PROMOTING THE EFFI¬ 
CIENCY OF THE CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED 
STATES. 


liecommended hy the Civil-Service Commission^ June 4, 1873, and 
promulgated hy the President August 1873. 


Kule 1. 

It being essential to the public welfare to maintain in the 
Executive the exercise of the power of nomination and api)oint- 
ment vested by the Constitution, and thereby to secure that 
measure of independence and separate responsibility which is 
contemplated by that instrument, and it being needful, in making 
such nominations and appointments, that the appointing power 
should obtain and in the proper Department preserve the evi¬ 
dence of fitness in reference to which all such nominations and 
appointments should be made: therefore, recommendations con¬ 
cerning any nomination or appointment to office or place in the 
civil service cannot be considered unless made in writing, 
signed by the persons making them, setting forth the character 
of the person recommended and his qualifications for the office, 
in reference to which the recommendation is made; nor, when 
the recommendation is by a person holding an office or station 
in or under the Government of the United States, can such writ¬ 
ten recommendation, except when made in response to a written 
request by the officer making the appointment, or in the dis¬ 
charge of an official duty imposed by the Constitution or the 
laws, be considered as entitled to any greater weight than if 
made by such person as a private individual. But this rule 
shall not apply to recommendations made by officers as to their 
own subordinates. 

Eule 2. 

While it is not the purpose of the rules an^ regulations pro¬ 
scribed for the government of the civil service either to restrict 




14 


the power of removal or to extend the tenure of service, such 
power will not be exercised arbitrarily, and therefore applica¬ 
tions must not be entertained by any authority having the 
duty of nomination or appointment for the removal of any per¬ 
son in the civil service, nor will any person be removed for the 
mere purpose of making a place for any other person. 

Eule 3. 

To prevent any misapprehension in the public mind in re¬ 
gard to the functions of the members of the Civil-Servdce 
Commission and of the members of any board of examiners, 
it is declared not to be any part of the duty or authority 
of any such member to act upon, take part in, or in any way 
entertain any recommendation, application, or question con¬ 
cerning appointments or removals in respect of the civil service, 
otherwise than in the strict discharge of their respective duties 
as prescribed by the rules and regulations; and for the same 
purpose, it is further declared that the functions of the mem¬ 
bers of said commission as to the matters aforesaid extend only 
to the question of the proper rules and regulations to be made 
and to supervising their application, and that the functions of 
the examiners, as to said matters, extend only to preparing for, 
conducting, rating, and making reports concerning examina¬ 
tions required to be made under such rules and regulations. 

Eule 4. 

The grouping heretofore made for the Executive Depart¬ 
ments at Washington is hereby modified by striking out the 
words “ female clerks, copyists, and counters, at $900 a year,” 
these places being below the grade of clerkships of class one; 
and all applicants for such positions shall be examined in (1) 
penmanship, (2) copying, (3) elements of English grammar, 
chiefly orthography, and (4) fundamental rules of arithmetic, 
except that mere counters may be examined only in the funda¬ 
mental rules of arithmetic and as to their facility in counting 
money; and those found competent by such examination shall 
be reported in the order of their excellence as eligible for ap¬ 
pointment; and selections may be made by the appointing 
power, at discretion, from the list of those so reported, being 
at liberty to give preference to such as may be justly regarded 
as having the highest claims to i)ublic consideration by reason 


15 


of loss of support or of property occasioned by the death or 
disability of any person in the defense of the Union in war, or 
in other public service of the Government. And in the notices 
of the examination of females to till vacancies among those 
last mentioned, it shall be stated as follows: “That from 
among all those who shall pass a satisfactory examination, the 
head of the Department will be at liberty to select such per¬ 
sons for the vacancies as may be justly regarded as having the 
highest claims to public consideration.” 

Rule 5. 

The notices to appear at any examinations, other than those 
referred to in the fourth rule of this series, so far as practicable 
and necessary to prevent misapprehension, shall advise female 
applicants to whom they may be sent, of any limitation which 
the law or the necessities of the public service impose upon 
such applicants entering the vacancies for which the examina¬ 
tions are to take place. 


Rule 6. 

That it shall be the duty of the respective boards of exam¬ 
iners, on the written request of heads of Departments, to hold 
examinations in anticipation of vacancies, as well as to till 
vacancies, and to prepare lists showing the results of competi¬ 
tion, so that when any such vacancy may happen there shall be 
those thus shown to be eligible to nomination or appointment, 
from whom the proper selection shall be made according to the 
provisions of the rules and regulations relating to competitive 
examination. And examinations upon like request shall be 
held in reference to vacancies to be tilled under the fourth rule 
of this series. 

Rule 7. 

Applicants for appointment as cashiers of collectors of cus¬ 
toms, cashiers of assistant treasurers, cashiers of postmasters, 
superintendents of money-order divisions in post-offices, and 
other custodians of large sums of public money, for whose 
tidelity another officer has given official bonds, may be ap- 
i:)ointed at discretion; but this rule shall not apply to any ap¬ 
pointment to a position grouped below the grade of assistant 
teller. 


16 


liULE 8. 

In cases of defalcation or embezzleuient of public money^ 
or other emergency calling for immediate action, where the 
l^ublic service would be materially injured unless the vacancy 
is promptly filled without resorting to the methods of selection 
and ai)pointment prescribed by the rules and regulations, or 
when a vacancy happens at a place remote and difficult of ac¬ 
cess and the methods prescribed for filling it cannot be applied 
without causing delay injurious to the public service, the ap¬ 
pointment may be made at discretion; but this rule shall not 
apply to any place which is provided to be filled under the rules 
of competitive examination. 

Eule 9. 

For the purpose of bringing the examinations for the civil 
service as near to the residences of those desiring to be exam¬ 
ined as the appropriation at the command of the President will 
warrant, and for the further purpose of facilitating, as far as 
practicable, the making of selections for such service equably 
from the several portions of the Union, while at the same time 
preserving the principle of promoting merit as tested by fair 
competition, it is provided as follows: 

(1.) That the several States and Territories are grouped into 
five divisions, to be designated as civil-service districts; the 
said districts to be numbered consecutively from one to five, as 
follows: 

I. The first district embraces the States of Maine, New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Yermont, Connecticut, Ehode Isl¬ 
and, and New York j and the examinations therein shall be 
held alternately at the city of New York and the city of Boston, 
but first at the city of New York. 

II. The second district embraces the States of New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, 
West Virginia, and the District of Columbia; and the exami¬ 
nations therein shall be held at Washington. 

III. The third district embraces the States of Ohio, Mich¬ 
igan, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Kentucky; and the examina¬ 
tions therein shall be held alternately at Cincinnati and Detroit, 
but first at Cincinnati. 

IV. The fourth district embraces the States of Illinois, 
Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, Cali- 


17 


fornia, and Oregon, and also all the Territories, except New 
Mexico and the District of Columbia j and the examinations 
therein shall be held at Saint Louis. 

y. The fifth district embraces the States of South Caro¬ 
lina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louis¬ 
iana, Texas, and Tennessee, together with the Territory of New 
Mexico; and the examinations therein shall be held alternately 
at the city of Savannah and the city of Memphis, but first at 
the city of Savannah. 

(2.) That in each of said districts examinations for admis¬ 
sion to the civil service, at Washington, shall be conducted as 
hereinafter provided; and those whose residence is within any 
such district at the time of filing the application for examina¬ 
tion shall be regarded as belonging to such district in reference 
both to competition and to appointments; and each district 
shall be treated as a sphere of competition, and those so resid¬ 
ing therein, wherever examined, shall be regarded as competing 
only with each other; but a person residing in any district 
may be allowed or notified to be examined in any other dfstrict. 

(3.) All applications for examination for service at Washing¬ 
ton must be addressed to the head of the Department at that 
city which the applicant desires to enter, and be in conform¬ 
ity to the previous rules and regulations, so far as the same are 
not modified by this series; and every such application must be 
dated, must give the town or municipality, as well as the State or 
Territory w^here the applicant has his legal residence, and also 
his post-office address. 

(4.) Each of the heads of Department will cause to be kept 
in permanent form a register of all such applicants for his De¬ 
partment, to be called a register of applicants and will cause 
such applications to be preserved on file for convenient refer¬ 
ence. 

(5.) The provisions of the former rules and regulations in ref¬ 
erence to the examining boards in the Departments and in the 
other local offices in the various cities, so fiir as consistent here¬ 
with, are continued until otherwise ordered. 

(6.) The President will employ or designate a suitable person 
to be chief examiner, whose duty it will be, subject to the su- ^ 
pervision of the Civil-Service Commission, to promote uniform¬ 
ity in preparing for, conducting, reporting, and grading the 
examinations by said boards, at Washington, and to prepare 
2 c s 


18 


for, atteucl, supervise, aud report tbe examiuatious hereiu pro¬ 
vided to be held elsewhere than at Washington. 

(7.) The several heads of Departments must also cause to be 
made in permanent form, and to be preserved, a “ record of per¬ 
sons eligible for appointment f arrangingunder separate headings 
those resident in each separate district, wherein shall be en¬ 
tered the names of the persons who have been examined within 
tw^elve months now last past, and who are still eligible to nomi¬ 
nation or appointment; and to such record must, from time 
to time, be added the names of those persons who shall here¬ 
after pass an examination which shall show them to be so eligi¬ 
ble for nomination or appointment. And such “ record of per¬ 
sons eligible for appointment” shall be so kept, and the names 
therein be so classified, that all those whose residences appearing 
as aforesaid to be in the same districts shall be tabulated to¬ 
gether, so as to show their relative excellence in each said dis¬ 
trict ; except that the names of all of those examined under the 
fourth rule of this series shall be separately entered upon the 

record of persons eligible for appointment,” for each Depart¬ 
ment, so as to show where they reside. 

(8.) That the officer having the power of making nomination 
or appointment may resort, for that purpose, to those so entered 
in the “ record of persons eligible for appointment” as residing 
in either of said civil-service districts; but (except in respect 
of those examined under said Rule 4) the method of competition 
heretofore provided must be regarded as applying among those 
so registered as residing in any such district, aud as requiring 
the nomination and appointment to be made from some one of 
the three persons graded as the highest on some one of said five 
several arrangements of persons so eligible. 

(9.) At a reasonable time before any examination is to take 
place, each head of Department will furnish the chief examiner 
with a list of those to be examined, and ten days before any ex¬ 
amination is to take place in any said district, elsewhere than 
at Washington, notice shall be sent by mail by such chief ex¬ 
aminer to all such applicants residing or allowed to be exam¬ 
ined in such district, stating the time and place of such exami¬ 
nation, and the other matters of which the rules and regu¬ 
lations require notice to be given. 

(10.) For the purpose of the examinations last mentioned, the 
said chief examiner shall receive from the several heads of De¬ 
partments at Washington, and from the head of any local office 


19 


which may request to have any examinations made of persons 
for said offices, the names of those who are to be examined at 
any place outside of Washington, and shall make a list of the 
same, showing the date of the filing of each application, which 
he shall produce at the place of examination; and the examina¬ 
tion shall be held of all those on such list who shall duly appear 
and submit thereto, provided the number be not so great, in the 
opinion of the examining board, as to render the examination 
of the whole impracticable, in which event only a reasonable 
number, to be selected in the order of the date of the filing of 
their applications, need be examined. 

(11.) For each place outside of Washington where such ex¬ 
amination is to be held, the President will designate persons, 
to be, when practicable, suitable officers of the United States, 
who, together with such chief examiner, or some substituted 
departmental examiner from Washington, to be sent in his 
place when such chief examiner cannot attend, shall consti¬ 
tute the board for such examination, and by said persons, or a 
majority thereof, of whom such chief examiner or said sub¬ 
stitute shall be one, such examination shall be held, and certi¬ 
fied in a uniform manner; and the time occupied by each x>er- 
son examined shall be noted on the examination x>apers. The 
questions to be put to those examined as applicants through 
the request of either head of Department, or head of local 
office, shall be such as may be provided, and as might be 
put, if all such examinations were, or were to be, conducted 
under the rules and regulations, by the examining boards of 
any such Department in Washington, or by any such local 
board. 

(12.) The chief examiner, or his substitute, shall make reports 
to each Department and local office separately, in respect of all 
such persons as either said head of Department or of a local 
office requested to be examined, and said reports, respectively, 
shall be accompanied by the examination papers of those so 
separately reported; and the board of examiners in each De¬ 
partment or local office shall make ui) and state the excellence 
of each person so reported as examined, and such excellence 
being not below the minimum grade of seventy per centum 
shall be duly entered in the record of persons eligible for ap¬ 
pointment in the proper district or local office. 

(13.) The district examinations herein provided for shall be 
held not more than twice in any one year, in the same district. 


20 


except in Washington, where an examination ma}" be held, in 
respect of each Department, as frequently as the head of such 
Department, subject to the approval of the President, may di¬ 
rect ; and all persons so examined in Washington, wherever 
they may reside, shall be entered on the record of persons 
eligible for appointment, equally as if examined elsewhere. 

(14.) Whenever the entry of the name of any person has 
been on the record of persons eligible for appointment during 
eighteen consecutive months, such entry shall be marked “ time 
expired,” and such name shall not again be placed thereon, ex¬ 
cept as the result of another examination. 

(15.) Persons who may be required to be examined for any 
custom-house, post-office, or other local office or place of service 
other than Washington, may be notified by the head of such 
office to appear and be examined at any examination provided 
for under this rule j and the result of such examination shall 
be reported by the chief examiner, or his substitute, to the 
proper examining board for such office or place, or to the head 
of the local office j and such board shall enter the name, with 
the proper indication or the grade of excellence, among those 
who are to compete at any such place or office, and from whom 
selection, on the basis of competition, shall be made. 

(16.) But where the result of any examination aforesaid shall 
show the excellence of any such applicant to be below the 
minimum grade of seventy per centum, (on the basis of one hun¬ 
dred as perfect,) the only entry thereof to be made in registers 
of the Department or of local office shall be of the words Not 
eligible,” which shall be written against the name of such per¬ 
son in the register of applicants; and such applicant shall not 
be again examined for any Department or office within six 
months of the date of the former examination. 

(17.) The provisions of this rule do not apply to examinations 
for promotion, nor do they apply to the State Department, in 
which examinations will be conducted under the provisions of 
the Executive order of March 14, 1873. 

(18.) Subject to the other provisions of this rule, the times of 
holding the examinations herein provided for in the first, third, 
fourth, and fifth districts, respectively, shall be fixed by the 
chief examiner, after consultation with the heads of Depart¬ 
ments at Washington. One examination, however, shall be 
held in each of the last-mentioned districts prior to the first 
day of November next, and the chief examiner shall, on or be- 


21 


fore that date, make a report in writing to the Civil-Service 
Commission, setting forth generally the facts in regard to the 
examinations referred to in this rule, and appropriate sugges¬ 
tions for increasing their usefulness. 

Eule 10. 

So many of the persons employed by the President under 
the ninth section of the act of March 3,1871, as are referred to 
in the opinion of the Attorney-General of the date of August 
31,1871, under the name of the Civil-Service Commission, and 
are still in such employment, together with the successors of 
those who have resigned, and their successors, shall hereafter 
be regarded as composing, and shall be designated as, ‘‘ The 
Civil-Service Commission}” and the use of the designation 
‘‘Advisory Board,” as referring to such persons, will be here¬ 
after discontinued. 


O 



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